My new addition!! e34 535i 5 speed

Yes it is pretty quick and a lot of fun to drive b/c of the Dinan suspension. Very flat in the corners. The amazing thing is I can get 29 mpg with it on the highway, probably even higher if I could keep the speed down!

In my mind it is short sighted to sell a car that is paid for just because of MPG, unless it is really bad and you do a lot of driving. You really have to figure out the cost savings on the fuel side and then weigh that against the higher cost of the new car and see how long it will take to even out. I guess too bad for that guy and lucky for you!!!

GR

he was pretty sad that he had to sell it, i think it was his first car i agree with not selling a car beacuse of mpg, within reason, especially when its already paid for. his wife was apparently set on a hybrid. it may be environmentally irresponsible ( did i just say that !) but i wouldn't even consider driving a hybrid....... unless BMW builds one! LOL

i posted the pics on the original message at the beginning of the thread. it rained the night before i took them so it is a little dirty. it would have been nice to have an 850 to travel in, great touring cars!!

LOL! Remember the first Robocop? The first one they made before they made Robocop. I'm nuts. I just came up with it. Now wouldn't that be the Ultimate Protection Machine?

Thats FREAKIN' great!!! my wife and i were just talking about that the other day, love robocop! we are already looking into alarms for the 535, the Stellar alarms from bavauto are high on my list. i've also heard that in some place in europe you can buy a similar alarm...... shocking!

It sounds like yours had a little easier life than the '89 (prod. date 9/88, so it's 20 yrs old now, come to think of it) that I got a few years ago w/ 112k on it.

I'm the 3rd owner, the immediate prior owner had replaced the rear subframe bushings, radiator, and a couple of the front suspension parts.

The 1st winter, I found the booster pump/valve that splits the coolant flow for the ability to have adjustable heat for the front seat passengers was bad, and eventually got around to replacing it. Until I did that, the heat was basically dependent on rpm - once the engine got warm, when the revs were up, the interior would start to warm up. Worked fine after it was replaced.

I had a couple of go arounds w/ the water pump belt breaking, that happened twice.

The alternator failed over the summer the 2nd year I had it. A/C was good up to just this year, just got it re-charged last month - held pressure a long time, so if there's a leak, it would appear to be a slow one; R12 is something like $65/lb these days.

The throwout bearing got noisy a couple years ago, so I replaced the clutch, etc.

The differential was noisy when I got it, which after a couple years started to sound much worse, so I bought a used diff off Ebay, which wasn't quite a direct replacement (they had to swap something from the diff I had, forgot what), but the mechanicals of the one I got were good, so that's worked out fine.

I replaced the original shocks w/ Boge's, and the strut bearings and rear shock mounts the year I got the car. This year, all the front suspension was completely shot and had to be replaced (165k). I had a front shimmy that started by popping up occasionally last year when hitting big bumps, and it seemed like a failed shock, as the front wheels would begin w/ a shimmy, progressing to a severe shake (like, nearly shaking the steering wheel out of your hands) and would only recede by slowing down substantially. This year, it got to where it would start to shimmy just driving in a straight line - had it checked out and they said a tie-rod was ready to fail - that's when I parked it and got everything replaced - went to Bilstein HD's, beefed-up control arm/bushings, and the rear shock mounts were shot after the last 4 yrs, needed those again as well. Little stiffer ride, but much more controlled & tighter. The Boge's were a bit mushy - cushy ride, but also if you hit a good bump while braking, they wouldn't damp the springs well enough and have a few extra bounces, increasing stopping distance.

I opted for a Autosolutions short-shifter full kit when I got the car - excellent thing to do for a manual, eliminated all sloppiness and tightened it all up - slight increase in shift effort, but no problem for me.

Watch your seat adjuster motors - if you find as your moving the seats that one side seems to move more than the other, watch it - you may have a cable problem that needs some adjusting or work, and having the motors twisting the seats apparently can make for a problem w/ the motor cables. I didn't really have the problem, but I think some tweaking was done on that earlier in the car's history. I never figured out where it came from, but there was a water leak that soaked the passenger floor, and had water sloshing around the battery under the rear seat. I didn't suffer a problem from that, but you can imagine the potential.

This summer, just about everything went wrong w/ the cooling system, had some serious overheating - I had replaced all major hoses a couple years ago as a precaution (some of them looked original). This time, it took a thermostat, water pump, fan clutch, and, since there was a bad thermostat _and_ fan clutch out of the box, there was some extra time and diagnosis to get it back to running cool. After a careful bleeding, it got back to normal.

The master cylinder was leaking when I first got the car, so that was replaced (and threw in a new reservoir as well, the original one was filthy).

The tranny had some seals that were leaking, took care of that when I did the clutch. BTW, if you have a stubborn pilot bearing, the BavAuto pilot bearing tool won't do it, you need the slide-hammer setup MooseheadM5 mentions in another post.

The windshield washer reservoir had a leak - turned out to be the pump (naturally, I only discovered that after I replaced the reservoir and the float).

A couple of the plastic clips that hold the shift knob on have failed - but, if you've had any manual BMW since they introduced E30's you'll know that - they all break eventually.

I haven't replaced the sword or hvac control units, but I think it needs some diagnosis, although the heat & a/c functioning hasn't been a big problem.

Haven't addressed this issue yet, but apparently there's a valve for the windshield washer line under the hood insulation - my right side washer jet acts like it has a prostate problem.

I haven't had lots of problems w/ the electrics/electronics, but a friend commented that as long as you can keep those going, it's otherwise pretty good.

Unfortunately, it has the foam-backed headliner material, which eventually loses adhesion, and sags. - Same is true for the door panel trim insets. The vinyl with which the doors are covered also loses adhesion, I presume it dries up a bit, shrinking in the process, and can't stay glued on. If it's a manual and you ever have to remove the panel surrounding the shifter (not the shift boot), it's really difficult to remove that without breaking the clips that hold it in place.

My brakes have worked fine, but I think are due for a rebuilding w/ fresh seals - one of the rear pistons has tended to retract a bit after being applied, leaving enough room for one of the rear pads to rattle.

The cd changer didn't work w/ the radio when I got it - I swapped out the radio a couple years ago for an aftermarket one.

My window switches were a little reluctant, particularly the rear ones - some usage over the years has made them have a litte better contact, and functioning. They're probably similar to the E30 switches in basic construction, which means they can be disassembled and the contacts cleaned, if necessary.

One of the rear locks seems to lock intermittently (when locking the car from the front door), an issue of minor importance for me.

I know I replaced the plugs, I probably did the rotor and cap as well, maybe even the plug wires - forget now what I did w/ that.

I know that sounds like a lot, but that's most of the issues that's come up for me - Except for the differential, most of it falls into typical things at typical mileages for BMW's w/ this suspension design as far as I'm concerned, or standard required maintenance. Car's been good, has run reliably and the engine's been strong - it's been fun to drive and I've been pretty happy w/ it.

The engine had a....slight stumble, (or lack of a better description) when accelerating. When I first got it, it would hit a couple flat spots in the rpm range when accelerating full throttle. Various bottles of Techron and regular usage of premium gas seems to have pretty well addressed that. I presume previous drivers may not have run the engine through it's rpm range all that often.

The door trim on the bottom of the doors can cause a rust problem. The door drains drain into the black trim pieces on the bottom of the door, and there's no way for the water to drain out of those. Probably less of a problem w/ a California car, but any rust belt state, very well could be an issue.

Oh ya - the piece that mounts to the block that mounts to the oil-filter housing was leaking, had to be fixed. I still have a minor oil leak that needs to be resolved, and a high-speed shimmy, which might be wheel/tire related after all the suspension work.

Anyway - that's some stuff to watch out for. Eventually, you will have to do all the front suspension control arms/thrust arms/bushings/tie-rods/etc.

Picking up the pieces in the aftermath by ED-209 would be no fun. Potential thieves would have turned into swiss cheese. Don't you just hate it when you have haters around?

yes i do, luckily i haven't had any problems with my e36 being messed with, but our neighbor's brand new Acura "S" model was debadged and they stole his car cover.... now thats low!! maybe we do need a ED-209 around

I still have ... a high-speed shimmy, which might be wheel/tire related after all the suspension work.

Anyway - that's some stuff to watch out for. Eventually, you will have to do all the front suspension control arms/thrust arms/bushings/tie-rods/etc.

Front suspension on these is nearly identical to the E28 (same upper control arms fit both, f'rinstance). Did you torque yours with the suspension fully loaded? If not, and they are the OE style (OE or milled 750i parts) instead of urethane, then improperly tightening the bushing through bolt can destroy them in a couple thousand miles. These must be fairly close to their static position when the car is at rest when you tighten them. Tightening them with the wheels hanging while jacked up is a sure recipe for early death of the bushings.

That said, this front suspension is very sensitive to pretty much everything: worn bushings, loose ball joints, warped rotors, out-of-balance wheels, uncentered wheels, irregularly tightened lug bolts, even wheel position on the bolt circle (Yeah; I know. It doesn't make sense, but experience tells me otherwise.). Usually, if you get around to doing enough, you can eradicate it.

I am reasonably sure my alignment shop knows what they're doing, as they've been doing it for so long. I haven't gotten around to eliminating wheel balance as a possibility. When the snows go on, I plan to at a minimum get the wheels rebalanced. However, I've unfortunately jumped curbs w/ these wheels twice (to avoid being sideswiped once, and not seeing some curbed-out driveway entrance that you weren't supposed to drive into from the direction I did), so I think I may also dismount the tires, and ship 'em off to the wheel repair place, and have them gone over (two wheels had some work already).

One thing that's annoying w/ these wheels is their centerbore is slightly larger than the hub and they need a small trim ring (like, maybe 2mm thickness) for a properly centered fit. I don't think that's been a problem so far, but I've thought about getting an adapter/spacer made to fit the wheels, and I think w/ a 5mm spacer I could fit 245's

I owned a 92 535i for 7+ years. Just make sure you turn off the car if the temp gauge goes past the 1/2 way mark. I had two (2) blown head gaskets (seperate times) because I turned it off when it hit the 3/4 mark . The M30 engine may be one of the best BMW engines made, but very fragile when it comes to coolant issues IMO. I had/have several M50 family engines that have gone near the red and no blown head gasket. Many people will disagree with me about the M30's reliability. I spent nearly $12K in 7 years on repairs. Maybe I just got a car that was abused big time before I purchased it. I see that you got a great bargain. Any service records? That mileage is nothing. I hope your 535i treats you better than mine did . Please post pics bumper2bumper. One of the first things I did when I got my 535i back in the day Aug 99 was put bavauto springs and Bilstien sport shocks. I feel that a lowered E34 really makes it look its best. Owning more than 1 BMW means you are a lucky dog . Good luck with your new toy.

never had an issue even after going way pass the 1/2 mark in 98+ summer weather and none working AUX fan. 12K in 7 years???!!! you deff needed to get a pre pay inspection.

M30 has been the most reliably BMW engine, its equivalent to the Chevy small block

E34s are all kick ass cars i've had 3 every one of them was a joy to drive even high mileage cars have done good by me ewith a m,minimum of problems i'ld say buy her if she dosen't meet your expectations i'll take her offour hands